Book Reviews

A lot of good books stay under the radar these days, as the New York Times and other key promoters review the same highly pushed works. So for those looking beyond the bestsellers for some good reads this holiday season,Read More »

Change from the Inside: My Life, the Chicano Movement, and the Story of an Era by Richard Alatorre with Mark Grossman
Richard Alatorre may not be a household name today, but he was on the front lines of many ofRead More »

(Ed Note: Leading Jacobs scholar Peter Laurence wrote this in response to a very inaccurate story on Jane Jacobs in The New Yorker. It is worth reading regardless if you have read the article it challenges).
Jane Jacobs made grownRead More »

Jane Jacobs is the leading urban visionary for post-WWII cities. Fittingly, her 100th birthday this year is being celebrated by books, events and a new documentary film. I recently spoke at a SPUR panel titled “What Would Jane Jacobs Do?,”Read More »

American labor unions are often associated with New York City garment workers or West Virginia coal miners, but California has a rich labor history. Fred Glass’ brilliant new book, From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement,Read More »

If you were a politically active lawyer in the 1960’s or 1970’s, or aspired to be one, you are likely familiar with the late Leonard Weinglass. Best known for his role with William Kunstler as defense counsel in the legendaryRead More »

­Music in the Air: The Selected Writings of Ralph J. GleasonConversations in Jazz: The Ralph J. Gleason Interviews, Edited by Toby Gleason
I didn’t know anything about the Ralph J. Gleason cult until I began researching my 2009 book onRead More »

Barbara Brenner’s friends and family have given a gift to activists in all fields with the publication of So Much To Be Done: The Writings of Breast Cancer Activist Barbara Brenner. Brenner, who died in 2013, was a well knownRead More »